Hi all,

I've been giving a lot of thought to what makes our Website and other Websites cool. I'm thinking about the design and content here.

Do you have any Websites you really enjoy the look and feel of? What about Websites you think do a really good job with color, navigation, layout, features, etc...

Post the URLs and WHY you like the sites here.

Thanks!

This section has been quiet long enough. Someone here in the forums wanted to know what it would take to make websites like these:
http://www.gucci.com/us/index2.html
and
http://www.mandaraspa.com/

I thought those were excellent websites to want to learn how to build. They use some flash animation, lots of color that suits the style of what they represent. The navigation is practical and not too fancy. Easy on the eye, entertaining and informative.

The Gucci website has video and never leaves the navigation behind so you don't get lost or confused about how to get to a previous page.
Nicely done.

Personally, I'm a fan of Open Source Web Design.

http://www.oswd.org/

I'm... "fair," we'll say, at coming up with graphics and designs for websites, but I'm more into the HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL side of sites. I have a friend who likes to make designs for me, but when I don't have the time to get him to build a design that I can code up, I just use OSWD.

With the speed at which domain names/websites propagate these days, in conjunction with some basic coding knowledge, and a full-fledged, free template like those from OSWD, it's literally possible to get a website up and running in less than an hour.

Holdin' out on us, David? I see how it is. Where were you to share this link with all the posts about "Where'd CoffeeCup's templates go?" It's not bookmarked for future reference.

Haha, I'm not totally sure where I was for all that... I've only got 89 posts, after all!

Yeah, honestly, the majority might've been before you joined the CC crew. Glad you're here now, though.
*Sorry J, going off-topic. Sadly I can't think of any site that stands out for me.

Here's another site I like the design of:

http://www.artypapers.com/

I like it because it's visually appealing and it's clean. All of the items that your mouse can click on are built in such a way that you know they're hyper items, and the page scales well.

Also:
http://www.mysiteplugins.com/index.php

This page uses a dark color in the background so your eye can easily focus in on the content in white. Its headers are clearly defined and stand out well with their color selection.

Then:
http://www.simplebits.com/

A two-column site with good content, SimpleBits' site isn't distracting. Your eye knows right where to focus when you view the page, and even when you're reading content that's not the main content (like on a sidebar), the stuff you are reading is easy to maintain your focus on; nothing else on the page distracts you.

i agree. i like this site too. it's clean and simple. it looks almost childish too.

_______________________
CRM software

Call me a pushover for flash beyond my software's means, but I came across this site recently and just could not seem to pull myself away...

http://www.blackberrycurve.com/

UPDATE: March 28 2009 - almost a year later and now an UGLY site. They had an amazing flash site a year ago...

Ok my spin I visited each site and as far as the "Clever sites" I tried and I have a low end broadband. If I created sites that took that long to load I would experiance excessive bounce. That is my analysis of how well my site is received. It is different if you have a site named GUCCI.

It took a lot of work to get Universal Ink Monitor up there in Google and it was by trying things and checking the bounce percentage. Do you check yours.

All the sites are very nice. I classify them in two groups one for information and the other for their artistic appeal.

What site do I like well currently this one. there are a lot of very intellegent people here.

One claim I definatly do not aspire to. comfortable disclaimer which hides my enormous ego. A guy like me finds it extremly difficult to be humble. I should add I cannot be serious for long either.

All of you have a great day

Terry